‘Stateless’ North Texas woman released from ICE detention after four months

Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old Arlington newlywed detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was released from detention this week after more than 120 days in custody.

Sakeik was released from a Prairieland Detention Center on Tuesday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a news release. She was detained in February after returning to Texas from her honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands with her husband, Taahir Shaikh, and she has said that ICE planned to deport her to the border of Israel.

As a Palestinian born a refugee in Saudi Arabia, Sakeik is “stateless,” meaning that she is not a recognized citizen in any country. Her family came to the U.S. on a visa when she was 8. After the expiration, her family applied for asylum in six countries and was denied entry from each of them.

Sakeik grew up in Dallas after ICE issued an order of supervision, which allowed her family to stay, she said. She met 28-year-old Shaikh, a U.S. citizen, in Texas.

Sakeik had applied for a green card before the honeymoon, complied with the restrictions of the order by traveling on U.S. land and had a “spotless compliance record,” according to the CAIR news release.

Ward Sakeik speaks about detention, release

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, Sakeik said that she would continue fighting for all of the women in ICE detention centers

The conference, put on by CAIR, was the first time Sakeik had spoken publicly since the beginning of her detention in February. She described her experience, the conditions of the centers and the battle that she and other detained women continue to fight.

The humanity that she was taught in school was the same humanity that was stripped from her in the ICE detention centers, Sakeik said.

“The last thing I want to ask is: Is this what humanity is? Is this what it has come to?” Sakeik said.

Sakeik was placed in three detention centers over the course of nearly five months. Though the treatment and conditions varied, she said the centers were unhygienic, with rusty beds and bugs everywhere.

She said that one center gave her a ripped blanket when she asked for a prayer mat. When she was. initially transferred and given food while she was fasting, she was told she could transport it with her and eat it once she broke her fast. She never ate that meal, she said.

Sakeik wouldn’t wish the transport process on her worst enemy, she said. The women were handcuffed for 16 hours on a wooden bench without food or water while the guards ate, she said. The transport guards would not answer any of the detainees’ questions or requests, she said.

“You ask where you’re going, nobody knows. Nobody knows anything,” Sakeik said. “He was like, ‘We’re just going there.’ Why? ‘We don’t know.’ How come? ‘We don’t know.’ When am I going to get there? ‘We don’t know.’”

She said she heard that answer every day. The agents brushed off her requests to call her husband or her lawyers during two deportation attempts, she said.

Lawyers call deportation attempts illegal

Her lawyers Maria Kari, founder of Project TAHA, Eric Lee and Chris Godshall-Bennett all stated that the deportation attempts were unlawful. The I-130 approval, the first step in the green card process, came through on June 27, Kari said. Sakeik still faced another deportation attempt on June 30.

The lawyers stated that she had protections and that she had complied with every process. Her husband said that she had no control over her immigration process when she came to the U.S. at 8 years old, and she had gone to see the ICE agents each year to comply with the order of supervision.

“Every single year they saw this girl from the age of 8 years old, congratulate her on graduation two years ago, congratulate her sister for getting married three years ago,” Shaikh said. “The same officers, the same institution that has shown the humanity and gave her the liberty to live in the country for 15 years, is taking it at a time where she wants to become an American citizen on paper.”

In a statement to Star-Telegram media partner WFAA-TV, the Department of Homeland Security said Sakeik’s detention was justified.

“The arrest of Ward Sakeik was not part of a targeted operation by ICE,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said. “She chose to fly over international waters and outside the U.S. customs zone and was then flagged by CBP trying to [reenter] the continental U.S. She overstayed her visa and has had a final order by an immigration judge for over a decade... Following her American husband and her filing the appropriate legal applications for her to remain in the country and become a legal permanent resident, she was released from ICE custody.”

Lee, an immigration lawyer for Sakeik, said that people should be concerned by the Department of Homeland Security’s “brazen” violation of the law.

That the DHS stated that she left the U.S. and violated her order by traveling to a U.S. territory should shock every American, Lee said. Setting the precedent that traveling across international waters warrants these checkpoints could mean more detentions and deportations, he said.

“What about everybody who flies between Hawaii and California? What about everybody that flies between New York and Detroit, a flight which passes over Canada?” Lee said.

Omar Suleiman, an activist and professor at Southern Methodist University, brought attention to the other people detained by ICE and to the war in Gaza. He said there were thousands of people detained who would never have a press conference, and thousands of people who no one will know buried beneath the rubble in Gaza.

Sakeik said that she bonded with the women in the center, making an art piece about their home countries and celebrating birthday parties. She said she wanted them to know that they were all important.

“They all deserve rights. They’re all humans, and I will continue to fight for them,” Sakeik said.

This story was originally published July 3, 2025 at 11:11 AM.